Happy Birthday Brandon Zyl!

I'm home! And as you all know, I'm home to celebrate my nephew's birthday bash. We spent it at home. We cooked some recipes and my brother's in-laws bought some more food, a birthday cake, an ice cream and balloons to make the little kid know it is indeed his birthday! :D

I'm so glad I'm able to spend more time with this nephew of mine. I love you, Brandon. I wish you'd grow up to be a good boy to everyone of us! Happy Birthday!

I'll Be Home Soon

My family and relatives had a gathering last Sunday. It was for my Mother's birthday bash and my big brother, Alexander's celebration of being a policeman. He just graduated from his training and is now officially a law enforcement officer! I'm so proud of him!

A candid shot of my big brother - Alex

My dear cousin Lainy posted a lot of their photos in Facebook. Thanks dear cuz for doing that!!!

My Mom and the gumamela flower... lol!

I can't help but miss all of them all the more. Last week I was just thinking about coming home. I've been saving money for that, anyway. I wish I have silver bars to sell so that I have a lot of money to bring home.

I promise I'll be home soon!

We Lost A Baby

I blogged about my cousin Michelle and her husband, Jon, sometime ago about expecting a baby. You can read it here.

But just few hours ago, I received a text message from Jon saying they're at a hospital near my office. On his first message, he told me he brought Michelle to the hospital because her water broke. She's not even due yet. That's when I got worried and asked how the baby was. He said they lost it. :(

I'm so sad...

Willy Is Back From UAE

My cousin Willy is back from United Arab Emirates. I'm scheduled to meet him, Michelle and Jon for lunch today. I'm excited! Even if it will mean I'll not have enough sleep today. :)

Willy worked for 2 years at the Arab country. He's on vacation for a month and he's going back to our Province maybe tomorrow or later today. I'm glad I'd be able to see my dear cousin before he leaves again.

This is going to be a great get-together with them! I hope I won't forget to bring my handy-dandy digital camera so I can take pictures of us at lunch!

Oh, and by the way, to those who celebrates V-day, I hope you will all have fun as well! :)

Health Plan For My Mom After 65

I made my Mom my dependent on our health insurance at work. She made use of the health card whenever she gets confined in a hospital. I like it because it's always a great help whenever my Mom gets sick. The problem is, it's coverage is only for parents who are 65 years old and below. My mother is turning 65 next month. She won't be covered with the health plan anymore next year. I'm a bit worried about that.

I've been browsing the internet for a reliable health insurance company and found out about East Coast Health Insurance. They are the most trusted health insurance online which guarantees affordable plans and believes that insurance is a right, not a privilege. I like that! They got a toll free number: 888-803-5917 where you can get affordable health insurance quotes and answer all your questions about the health insurance you chose.

With every life threatening ailment or illnesses that goes with old age, I hope I can find that health insurance plan which will also cater people more than 65 years of age. In that way, I won't have financial problems if ever my Mom gets sick even if she's beyond 65 years old.

Where To Spend My New Year's Eve?

Holidays are coming but I still don’t know how I’m going to spend it. I won’t be home for Christmas or New Year ’s Eve because I don’t have enough money to spend for my plane ride home. It would be very expensive especially this time of the year.

I miss my folks back in the province though. This is not the first time that I won’t be spending the upcoming holidays with them but I really feel that it’s important to be with the family during this season. Sigh.

I miss hearing my Mom’s voice even if it’s irritating sometimes. I miss my favorite sweet Aunts - Tita Rose and Tita Almeda and my cousins. I miss hearing them laugh and chat loudly with each other even if it gets annoying sometimes. LOL! I miss my brothers whom I sneak off and puff cigars with without letting our Mom know and talk about our lives for a little while. Ah! Even if we don’t stand each other most of the time, family is still family, you know.

I know I’m getting mellow-dramatic again. I just haven’t seen them for a while now. How I wish I’m a rich girl who can afford to go home anytime I want.

Anyway, my boyfriend already invited me to spend the New Year’s Eve with his family. I’m thinking twice about going though. I’m friends with his family and I’m okay with them, I guess. Just thinking about it makes me feel anxious already because it’s going to be my first time to spend the New Year’s Eve with a boyfriend and his family.

Nah! I am yet to make up my mind. :)

The Now Talkative Brandon

Before Joy, my sister-in-law, left for Al Ain, Abu Dhabi to work as a nurse, she have one thing in mind: to be able to support for her family, especially their son who, according to the pedia, showed signs of autism. I'm not exactly sure if the diagnosis was correct. Before SIL left, Brandon seldom talks, and if he tries to talk, he just babble the words. He's about to turn 4 years old by then and it already worried my SIL and my brother, Florante.

He just turned 4 years old recently and thankfully, after few sessions with the speech therapist, Brandon learned to be very talkative. Just as of late, whenever I call them at home, I often hear him talk and say "Hi Tita!" and sometimes even say "I love you, Tita!". That definitely makes my day. My Mom brags about him being talkative and hyperactive. I just can imagine how exhausting it could be attending to my nephew. We still hope that the diagnosis of autism is not correct. I think it's just normal for kids to be hyperactive especially with the boys.

I think my brother and my sister-in-law's decision of bringing my nephew to a speech therapist greatly helped on the improvement of my nephew's speech deficiency. Speech-Language Pathologist Jobs is not that common here in the Philippines and it takes a lot of money to be able to afford a speech pathologist. Yet, I'm really thankful that there's that profession which could be a great help especially to kids who need special attention for speech.

I can't wait to go home and to be able to finally have a chitchat with our ever-exuberant Brandon! :)

Restored Laptop And A Busy Week

I just had my laptop fixed. It crashed this weekend, AGAIN. I don't know yet if this is already a hardware problem. I hope it isn't. The same friend who fixed it couple of months ago restored my computer. I actually did the system restore myself and sadly lost all my files. So I had him reinstall everything including the antivirus program.

Unfortunately though, I can't access some important websites on my browser. I have already tried everything like turning off the security software and other things that Google told me to do but to no avail. Sigh. I'm not able to finish my online assignments because of this. I hope I can get a reply from my friend to fix this. Or else, I'll be doing my assignments at the office where I have been very busy lately.

I still got a lot of things to do this week. Tomorrow I'll be staying with my cousin, Michelle because our favorite Aunts from the province are staying with her right now. I want to spend time with them before they go back to GenSan this weekend. As usual, we got Church activities this weekend which needed my participation.

I hope to go back to my not-too-busy-life. I hope life's gonna be that smooth-sailing next week. I'm looking forward to that! :)

Praying For SIL's Safety At UAE

Mary Joy, my sis-in-law arrived safely in United Arab Emirates 2 weeks ago. As soon as she got there, she sent me a text message and we were also able to chat because one of her room mates, thankfully, owns a computer. I'm glad to know that she was safe over there.

Mary Joy is now working as a nurse out there. I'm not really sure if she's going to be attending to patients who are elderly or if she will also take care of the younger ones. Like babies, I know it's a more difficult to take care of the sick and elderly. She don't need to just bring them medicines but for sure, she's also gonna take charge of replacing stuffs bought by the hospital which are incontinence products at disposablemedicalexpress.com. I can just imagine how hard yet rewarding it is being a nurse.

I just hope she doesn't get depressed for being faraway from her family. I keep sending her text messages, I know my brother does too, just to let her know that she's being remembered here. I hope she prays and holds on to her Faith so that she will get the best comfort from God. I keep praying for her safety over at UAE. I know time will just pass us by and the next thing we know is that she's gonna be with her family again, back home, here in the Philippines.

S-I-L's Going To UAE

I fetched my sister-in-law at the airport earlier today. She's going to stay here in my place just for tonight because she's gonna be on her way to United Arab Emirates tomorrow. She's going to work there as a Nurse. I can just imagine the sadness that my brother feel right now. This is going to be the first time that him and his wife are gonna be miles apart. He's left to take care of their only son, Brandon, who was lately been suspected of autism. We all hope it's just delay on his speech development. Brandon is now being treated and hopefully my Mom and my brother would be able to see some more development in Brandon.

It's gonna be hard for Mary Joy to be very far away from her family. I hope she would be able to make it over there. I hope she will overcome the homesickness. The good thing about where she's going to work at is that she's allowed to go home every year. At least she'll be able to see her family after a year. Time passes by so fast. If she's going to concentrate on her work, the next thing she'll know is that she's gonna be home-sweet-home again with Baby Brandon and my little brother.

Let Me Hold Your Hand

It's been more than a week that my Mom was here with me. I've been busy this week but I often think of her. I wonder how she's doing. I can't reach her on her phone because I think she didn't charge her phone again. Sometimes I ask myself if I made the right decision of staying here in Manila. And that what makes me feel guilty sometimes, like right now.


When my Mom was here, I love the feeling of being taken care of. Since I was very busy, she was the one who cooked, fixed my clothes and she also did my laundry. She never did that before. When we were young, we take care of ourselves and her because she has to go to work. Maybe she just didn't have anything else to do when she was here that's why she did all that. Nevertheless, I was happy about it.

But then she was counting the days when she's gonna go home. She missed her busy life back in the province. LOL! My Mom can't live a life without stress.

We agreed that she's going to take another vacation here sometime soon. I'm gonna make it up to her on her next vacation.

Last week, while I was looking at our pictures and decided to post this note on Facebook which I entitled "Let Me Hold Your Hand":

I remember when I was a little girl, you used to hold my hand to make sure I won't fall or slip or be left behind and get lost. Now it's time for me to hold your hand and make sure you're okay. We can take a little rest if you say you're tired of our walk but I'll keep holding your hands to make sure you won't slip or fall or be left behind.

I love you, Nanay! Thanks for the wonderful time that we spent together! I miss you...

Now I miss holding her hand while we're walking. I love the feeling of being the one making sure she's not gonna fall or slip or be left behind on our walk. I wish I can do that again sometime soon. I really miss you, Mother Dear!

My Mom Is Back From KL Trip!

I fetched my Mom at the airport early this morning. I'm glad to see her again after her 5-day trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was a bit worried while she was there. She doesn't seem to have the energy to have endured a long and tiring trip. I'm happy she made it and I'm really glad she had fun during the tour!

She told me stories about how wonderful Malaysia is. She broke her camera so she wasn't able to take pictures of the place. Her friends got cameras though and promised to give her some copies of the pictures that they took in Kuala Lumpur. Her stories about her tour now makes me want to travel to Malaysia too. I will have to save some money for that.

For now, I'm happy that I'm with my Mom again. She got really exhausted from the trip and is currently sleeping. I wonder what we're gonna do tomorrow and the following days to make her stay here in Manila memorable! Oh, I will have to make an invitation to a friend of mine,Raquel, regarding that. Maybe she's got a good idea of a nice place that we can go to. I'm already excited! :D

Breaking News: Mother Dear In Manila Today

I just came from the airport where I fetched my Mom. She's going to Malaysia tomorrow for a tour. I'm glad she grabbed an opportunity like this. It's about time for her to enjoy her life and not think about her worries back in the province. We actually haven't talked that much yet because she's too sleepy when we got here in the apartment.

I don't know what her plans are for today. I think she wanted to watch a movie by Aga Muhlach and Angel Locsin. I'm not a fan of Angel Locsin but I love Aga Muhlach. If ever my Mom won't change her mind, I'm going to watch the movie with her tonight then. :)

She's going to be leaving for Malaysia tomorrow and will be back here in Manila after their 5-days tour. She's gonna be staying here for 9 days after her Malaysia trip. It's quite a while. I hope everything is gonna go well between the two of us here in Manila. :D

Honestly, I love that she's here! :D

The Wedding (Jayson and Shane)

A week has passed after my homecoming. I've been too lazy and I know I owe you an update of what happened during my cousin's wedding last week.

All I can say is, it was indeed an amazing wedding! I can't believe that it was just a month of preparation! For me, it was perfect! Kudos to everyone who was behind the success of the wedding ceremony and reception. Especially to my beautiful and ever reliable cousin, Lainy! She's the sister of the groom and the one in-charge of everything about the wedding!

Posing with the wedding planner, Lainybelle!:D

Here are some of the photos taken on the event!

The wedding prep at the mansion:

busy Lainy...

The wedding ceremony

The cocktail party at the reception

And the party went on! :D

Congratulations to the newly wedded couple, Jayson and Shane! God bless! I love you both!

Will Be Seeing Michelle... :D

I chatted with my cousin Michelle yesterday. We were not able to see each other last week so we set another time to meet up. We talked about work and schedules and she also mentioned that her husband, Jon, is the one who handles their new business. It was like one of those franchise opportunities but it's a smaller business according to Michelle. I got excited about seeing what their new business was about. One of these days, I hope I'd be able to visit them in their home and also get the chance to check business out.

I miss my dear cousin and I'm excited to finally see her this coming Saturday! :D

My Mom's Planned Trip To Malaysia

My Mom's flight for Malaysia has been moved from this month to February. She's going to stay here in Manila with me for a while before and after her Malaysia trip. The trip is her incentive from her multi-level marketing job. I was even surprised because she was able to get the incentive even though she works for the company in less than a year. She is that productive!

I'm not exactly sure if the company is going to cover all the expenses during the trip. Like the food, transportation, allowance and the accommodation. Knowing my Mom, she would not want to be spending much.

I hope her company reserved something like Kill Devil Hills vacation rentals where she can really relax and have some fun. She's been working most of her life since she was 18 years old. It's time for her to enjoy!

I've been wanting this for my Mom. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to provide for her vacation as of now. I hope someday I can have a vacation somewhere else with her. Just me and her, spending time together! :D

Pacquiao's Mansion And The Vinoya Family

Businesses, a Golf course and mansions - these are some of GenSan's pride's, Manny Pacquiao's properties and assets that he acquired from being a World Boxing Champ. His fame brought tourism to my hometown in Mindanao which is General Santos City.

I can see that a lot has changed in General Santos City. During my vacation last week, I went around the city and saw that the economy have progressed. Malls are being built, I saw a lot of new establishments and I was pleased. Their were now more jobs offered to the people in GenSan. Manny Pacquiao was indeed a hero of the Generals (that's what people in General Santos City are called) not only because of him being a boxing Champ but also for bringing jobs to the people in the city.

When I was in GenSan, I went with the Vinoya Family in December 29, 2010 the day after Michelle and Jon's wedding. The Vinoya Family was born and raised in Manila. They wanted to see the beautiful places in GenSan and of course wanted to tour one of the mansions of Manny Pacquiao. Lainy was the tour guide since she knew much about GenSan.

We had lunch at Southpoint Diving Resort, which is located in Maasim, Sarangani province (this where Manny Pacquiao was able to win as the Congressman during the most recent national election). It was I think about an hour away from General Santos City. Unfortunately, we did not bring swim wears so we ended up just taking pictures of the beautiful place!

Michelle with her in-laws...

Michelle and Lainy posing like twins! :D

After that, we headed to the newly built Robinson's Mall in GenSan, they did some shopping. Again, took a lot of pictures and had our snack.

Pretty me and Michelle! :D

Gorgeous cousins!

It was almost 6 o'clock in the evening when we're done fooling around in the mall. So when we came to Manny Pacquiao's mansion, we found out that they don't entertain guests anymore after 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Too bad! We ended up just taking pictures outside the gate of the mansion! LOL! The Vinoya Family were of course got somehow disappointed because that was one of their agenda before going back to Manila.

Since I stayed longer in GenSan than the Vinoya Family, I saw some more of the businesses owned by Manny Pacquiao. They definitely invested their money into something not only productive for their family but also for the people in GenSan! I hope the Vinoya Family could visit again and will have the chance to be able to tour Manny Pacquiao's mansion! :D

Spent Time With Vinoya Family...

I spent time bonding with the newly weds - Michelle and Jon together with Jon's family in Lake Sebu the other day. Lake Sebu is a municipality in South Cotabato that is known for it's natural lake, stunning 7 waterfalls and their T'Boli culture. It has become even more popular because of their 200-meter zipline right above the 5 water falls - the highest zipline in the country! It was a thrilling experience being able to experience riding the zipline! Almost everyone of us took the chance to experience the adrenaline rush - zipping!

Too bad, I wasn't able to bring my digital camera. I still have to wait for the Michelle to upload photos from her camera. It was so careless of me to forget it! :D I'll be making another entry for the photos. I just want to say for now that I really had a great time with the Vinoya family. I also took advantage of being able to spend time with Michelle and Jon. Who knows, maybe next year or the years to come, they will be making baby birth announcements! We won't have the chance to do something adventurous like the one we had in Lake Sebu! Besides, I might move back here in Mindanao for good. That's my tentative plan, actually. So I took advantage of the moment to spend with the couple!

The Lake Sebu photos will be posted soon! So please stick around! :D

Congratulations Michelle And Jon!

This year's homecoming is a special one! I came home not only to spend time with my beloved family, but also to be part of my dear cousin - Michelle's wedding with Kuya Jon.


On December 28, 2010, I and many of our relatives and friends got together to witness Jon and Michelle take their vows as husband and wife at the Church locale of Iglesia Ni Cristo in Koronadal City, South Cotabato. It's an event in their lives that anyone closest to them would not want to miss, especially myself! I'm so glad to be a part of their love story!

with the groom...

with the bride...

To Michelle and Jon, I wish you both all the best in your wedded life! Congratulations! I love you both! :D

My Mom Finally Got Herself A Phone! :D

I was able to talk to my Mom on the phone today. She finally bought herself a phone and thankfully, she now knew how to atleast, answer all calls! LOL!

I was with my friend Judith early this evening. It was quite a long day. We went to see the light show at Makati Triangle. It was nice! I'll blog about it later.

Going back to my Mom. So I was talking to her and she wasn't aware that she was on speaker phone so Judith can also hear how funny my Mom is on the phone. :D We talked about my homecoming and then all of a sudden she told me that the digital camera I bought for her on her birthday was soaked in the water. She wasn't able to have it fixed and that she was sorry about the digicam. Judith was laughing while hearing me and my Mom talk. Then she asked me what I bought for her this homecoming. She doesn't like surprises that much, does she? Of course I didn't tell her what I bought since I haven't bought any as of yet. I miss my Mom and I'm excited to be with her when I get home. I'm gonna do a last minute shopping tomorrow. Sigh! It wouldn't be that much. I'll just make it up to her on her next birthday. I better think of birthday gifts for mom as early as next month. I want to make her happy on her next BIG day! :D